A joint state investigative team has released its first report
into the deadly milk powder incident that claimed the lives of 13
infants and sent more than 170 to hospitals. The report, released
Thursday, indicates that dozens of milk powder companies in eight
provinces have been producing substandard milk.
The team, led by the State Food and Drug Administration,
inspected 205 varieties and 149 brands of milk powder produced by
141 companies. All the products were available on the market in
Fuyang, Anhui
Province, in eastern China.
Investigators found 55 kinds of milk powder produced by 46
companies located in eight provinces, municipalities or autonomous
regions were substandard.
Most of the inferior products did not meet the requirement that
the milk contain 12 percent protein.
Thirty-one products contained less than 5 percent protein. One
of them had only 0.37 percent, the report indicated.
The team returned to Fuyang Thursday night to continue its
investigation.
According to a team organized by the Anhui provincial
government, 17 of the 45 substandard milk powders it examined came
from northeast China's Heilongjiang
Province, seven from the Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region, and the rest from Zhejiang,
Shanghai, Beijing, Shandong, Hebei, Hubei and Jiangxi.
Five wholesalers suspected of distributing substandard or fake
milk powders in Fuyang had been arrested by local police by
Wednesday night.
Two suspects have confessed and revealed the channels through
which they received their products. Interrogations are still under
way, according to Legal Daily.
The local government has decided to provide treatment to all the
babies who are still ill at no cost, and pay the families of each
deceased victim 10,000 yuan (US$1,200).
(China Daily April 23, 2004)